216 Professor Hoffmann on the Geological Investigations 



The first of these facts is admirably exhibited in the band 

 of volcanos which surrounds the continent of part of India and 

 China, and which extends through the islands of Sunda, the 

 Moluccas, and the Philippines ; the continuation of this line 

 follows the coast outline through Japan and Jesso, passing by 

 the Kurile chain of islands to Kamtschatka. Thence, how- 

 ever, this great fissure proceeds with remarkable distinctness 

 through the series of the Aleutian islands to America ; and 

 here, again, there runs along the whole west coast of that 

 continent, to the southern extremity, an almost unbroken 

 range of still burning volcanos. With regard to the paral- 

 lelism of the higher mountain-chains with lines of volcanos, there 

 is a fine example of it on the north coasts of New Guinea, New 

 Holland, and the intervening islands ; it is very clearly seen 

 in a series of volcanos in the Archipelago of the Islands of 

 Greece ; and the whole arrangement of the Italian Peninsula 

 points in a most perfect manner to the same phenomenon. 



These views, so splendid and so generally true, contributed 

 more than all that preceded them to the advancement of our 

 science ; the conclusion was now approached very nearly that 

 not only our great continental masses, but also our individual 

 mountain- chains, have been placed in their present position 

 by elevation, and by the tearing asunder of their connection 

 with the former bed of the sea. The forces pressing up from 

 the interior (compressed vapours) could only escape through 

 the cracks produced at the edges of the crust of the earth ; 

 and where, as in the South Sea, innumerable fissures and open- 

 ings were formed, there no connected continental mass could 

 rise up, but, on the contrary, the continent, which would other- 

 wise have been elevated, remained behind under the bed of 

 the sea. 



By means of this view of the subject, there naturally dis- 

 appeared all the remains of the one-sided ideas founded on 

 local phenomena, which, owing to the influence of Werner's 

 doctrines, had remained behind, and that more especially in 

 Germany ; and the approbation of the present age could not 

 fail to accompany this extension of our scientific knowledge. 

 Hence all the more distinguished of the newer geologists have 

 at once adopted this opinion, and made their observations 



